Hiroki's nose poked me in the butt. He had shifted too, but his muted browns and reds blended in with our natural surroundings better than I did. He looked way more like a normal fox than I did. Even his tails were thinner and he disappeared like a freaking ninja.
I batted him across the face with half my tails.
"They're going to see you," he said with difficulty. Fox mouths were not intended for human speech.
We were outside the school and at the bottom of a path leading up one of the multitudes of mountain trails. Casting one more glance at the direction the trio had gone, I bounded for the closest tree and plucked a leaf from the ground with my mouth, careful not to damage it. Pouring a bit of power into it, I touched it to the fur on my hindquarter. With a puff of smoke, my pure white fur became a mottled brown, and eight of my tails disappeared. To the casual observer, I looked like a normal fox.
"Better," Hiroki yipped.
In our fox forms, it was only a matter of moments until we caught up to them, just as they reached the mouth of a large cave. "What are they doing?"
"Cave party?" Hiroki seemed as curious as me.
"And they didn't invite us."
The three of them were looking around, for kami knows what. Finally, they entered the cave. Just as I was about to dart from the tall grass from the side of the trail, Hiroki stopped me. Getting bit on the tail wasn't the most pleasant of feelings, but he saved me from being spotted. Two dogs, of epic proportions, leapt down from a rocky ledge above the cave entrance. They weren't just epically proportioned; they were the size of small horses. Black, sleek fur rippled down their stocky forms as their muscles bunched while they walked around, sniffing the air and growling softly.
Not daring to talk, Roki began pulling on my tail, urging me to get the hell out of there. I was quick. I was nimble. But I wasn't stupid. I would hardly be an appetizer for the two beasts scenting us.
Roki let go of my tail and we belly crawled away. The two beast dog monsters didn't show any sign of pursuit, thankfully. I shuddered just thinking about how close I'd come to becoming kibbles and bits.
"That was close," Roki hissed when we were far enough away.
I just nodded, curiosity tearing my insides apart. If it were just David and the dick twins, letting it go would have been a lot easier. Knowing that his ex-girlfriend and her bitches in waiting were involved made it more than unbearable. If I didn't think the two black monster dogs would sniff me out in a New York minute, I would have slapped an invisibility spell on my ass and gone back in there.
"What do you want to do?"
"Go back for now. We'll check things out…later."
Instead of answering, he nodded his vulpine head once and stealthily started picking his way through the field way more silently than I could manage. I wasn't a very good fox. In fact, that was the first time I'd been a sober fox in a very long time.
One moment, I was staring at Roki's ass, the next it was three feet in the air and heading straight for an unsuspecting field mouse. Without a second thought he scarfed the whole thing down, turning and giving me a grin with the tail hanging out the side of his mouth. I shifted back into my human form, thankful my clothes transformed with me. I always snickered at shifters in movies and how they always were naked when they shifted back. That would be horrifically inconvenient. But probably a little bit of fun, too.
"That's fucking disgusting."
He swallowed his Mice Krispy Treat and shifted, too. "They are delectable."
"I'll take your word for it. No way am I eating mouse sushi. Mushi? Whatever. I feel sick."
"You need to listen to your instincts more."
"My instincts are telling me chocolate tastes way fucking better than rat guts."
"Sometimes you are too human."
"I thought that was the whole point of this place?"
"No. It is to appear human. You are two extremes. Too much of one and not enough of the other. You need to find the middle ground. Life is all about balance."
"Blah blah blah."
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "One day, many, many hundreds of years from now, most likely, you will understand the wisdom of my words."
"I understand them now. But, and you may not have noticed this, but I'm pretty unbalanced in everything I do."
"Yes. I have noticed."
"Shut up. Let's go back to the dorm."
"Hai."
∞ ∞ ∞
Fumbling with the last button on my pajama top, I walked over to our room door and twisted the handle. I'd told David I would see him tomorrow, but I figured he couldn't resist seeing me before he went to bed. They were out later than I'd been expecting, or hoping, but I was glad he decided to say goodnight. Pulling the door open, I gave him a sultry grin. "Miss me?"
It wasn't David. It was one of the twins.
"No." He cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Oh. It's one of you." My grin faded into something more akin to a face I would make if Roki ate a raw mouse and fed it to me like a momma bird.
"We need to speak."
"No, we don't," I said and closed the door. On his hand.
He didn't move it, either. Or make any painful noises. He was utterly disappointing. I pulled it back an inch and slammed it again to no avail. He wasn't budging. I pulled the door open all the way.
"Fine. You convinced me. What do you want?"
He looked over my shoulder and narrowed his eyes at Roki standing behind me. "Tell your girlfriend to take a walk."
"Don't trust yourself around him? I don't blame you. He's pretty damn cute and I saw you eyeing his ass earlier. But the odds of you getting him to leave me alone with you are nonexistent."
"Fine. You take a walk with me. We have something to discuss."
"I'm in my jammies already. We can talk tomorrow."
"This is not a request."
I sighed, weighing all my options in my head. There weren't that many. "Fine. Give me a minute to change."
He nodded and gave me a satisfied smirk. I was probably the last person on earth to admit it, but whichever twin he was, he was attractive. Shoulder-length blond hair, piercing blue eyes, chiseled jaw with just a hint of stubble. However, when he smirked, I kind of wanted to bash his face in with a brick. Not because it pissed me off, but because it made him look even hotter. Too bad I'd rather eat nothing but raw rodents for the rest of my life in human form than spend any time with him.
I closed the door and he didn't impede it with his tree-trunk hands. Sighing, I crossed the room, past my dresser, and straight to the one wood-trimmed window in our room.
"Kaede?"
"Tell Douche McNugget if he wants to talk to me, he has to catch me first." I grinned, opened the window, and popped to the grass twenty feet below. Looking up, I waved at Roki shaking his head and giving me a grin from the window.
Looking around, I took off across the quad between the dorms. Across the way was Davenport Hall, home of the second years. I'd just have to blend in there for a while until Rome or Remy got tired of waiting and then I could pop back into my room and my nice warm bed. The important thing was I outfoxed the meathead. It wasn't that hard, but I was still proud of myself.
I was chuckling to myself when I rounded the corner and smacked face first into meathead's chest. "Nice try."
Blinking in confusion, I stared at the face of the other twin. I don't know how I knew, but I knew without a doubt it was his brother. Go me. I could tell them apart, but I didn't know which one was which. "Pretty clever. He knew I'd run."
"Yes."
Sighing, I had to ask. "So, which one are you? Romeo or Ruliet?"
"Remy."
"Oh. The nice one. My lucky day."
"Wait here. My brother is coming."
"Oh. He's still with Hiroki?"
"Pardon?"
"Joking. But I'd probably pay to watch."
"Watch what?"
"Romarokipalooza."
"You are a strange creature."
"N
ot so bad, yourself. So. Is this going to take long? Because I gotta thing I need to get to."
"Just a warning."
"Is this about David?"
He was kind of cute when he scrunched his eyebrows like that. Maybe it was how I could tell them apart. His expressions were softer. "No?"
"Oh. I thought you were going to tell me to stop dating him."
"He is free to date whom he wants."
"Just not your sister."
"I did not mind."
"I do. I won't allow it."
"As I said. You are a strange creature. Here is Rome."
I turned around to see how much trouble I was in. Judging by the snarl, I'd say pretty deep. Good thing he wasn't the boss of me. I was standing there by choice. I could have been back in bed by then, if I wanted to.
"Is he as mad as he looks?"
"You are not dead, so no."
"How come he hates me so much?"
"That is between you and him."
"You don't hate me?"
"Not as of yet. I find you mostly amusing. When I'm not having to subdue my brother from causing you bodily harm."
"He's the emotional twin. You're the intellectual one, huh?"
"No. I'm the funny one."
I turned and looked at Remy over my shoulder. He had the tiniest of smiles plastered on his face and it propelled him from the realm of hotness into supernova sexiness. They should both do it more. When they weren't picking on poor, innocent little foxes.
"Hiya, Rome. Bout time you showed up. I was getting tired of waiting for you and entertaining your brother. When you said you wanted to take a walk, I was kinda expecting you to keep up, if I'm being honest."
"I doubt you know how."
"Ouch. That hurted. What can I do for you?"
He didn't stop walking until he was inches from squishing me between him and his brother. Not that I would have minded…
Mmmm. Manwich.
He didn't touch me, luckily for him. I didn't know what I would have done to him. Bit him in the ankle, or kicked his shin, or something equally as painful. "Stay away from the cave."
"Huh?"
"You heard me. Stay away from the cave. If I catch you there again, it will not end well for you. Do you understand me?"
"Uh…what cave?"
I almost had him. For a fraction of a nanosecond, I saw the doubt cross his face. Unfortunately, he realized I was playing dumb and the doubt was replaced with seething hatred.
"Oh. That cave! Yeah, wasn't planning on going back. Me and guard dogs don't mix."
"Guard dogs?"
"Yeah. Big black ones. Look like they shoulda had three heads and would fall asleep if you played harp music."
"What?" They both asked simultaneously.
"Fluffy? Nevermind. What's in the cave?"
"Death," Remy said softly behind me.
"Scary."
"He is not joking. You have been warned. Stay far away and all will be well. Choose to ignore our warning and your fate is your own," Rome said menacingly. Don't get me wrong, pretty much every word out of his mouth spoken in my general direction had some degree of a menacing lilt to it, but this time it kind of sent a shiver down my spine. I liked it.
"Say that again, but slower. And can you curl your lip a bit?"
He ruined it by looking confused and then angrier than I had yet to see him to date. Literally, his face flushed and then began to redden like a tourist at Disney Land who thought sunblock was for women folk. He sputtered and clenched his fists. Remy grabbed my shoulders and started to turn me, putting himself between Rome's anger and my pretty little face.
"Fine, I'll stay away from your dank, dark cave. Nobody wants it anyway," I said over my shoulder.
He snarled. So help me kami, he fucking snarled. There might have been some globules of spittle reflected in the overhead lamps. The boy had serious anger management issues.
"He in therapy?" I asked Remy as I looked up.
"Do not joke. In fact, now might be a good time to leave. Heed his warning, please."
"Awww. You do care."
"No. I do not wish to clean up the mess."
"Message received. Cave bad. Bed good. Night, kids," I said and pulled free from Remy's grip, popping back to the other side of the quad and waving goodnight to the twins.
Hiroki stepped from the shadows and dispelled his katana. I gave a wry smile. The twins might think they're all big and bad, but they'd never seen a pissed off Roki with a sword. Had they truly intended to harm me, I wouldn't have put money on their genitals surviving the night. There was more than one reason he was my babysitter-slash-bodyguard.
"Did you hear all that?"
"Hai."
"What do you think?'
"I think you are going to get yourself into more trouble."
"I think you're right."
"No. Don't," he called softly to the air in front of us, sighed, and rolled his eyes. The Hiroki Triple Play.
Chapter 11
Slipping the piece of paper into the Guess Box outside the great hall without anybody seeing me was easier said than done. But I did it. I grinned at my joke, popped back to the end of the hall, and slipped outside the double doors without even making a creak. I needed to hurry to get to the dining hall before David started to wonder where I was.
Walking as quickly as possible, I popped when I could in the shadows of the buildings, trying to remain unseen but not really caring if the odd one or two people spotted me. The number of supernatural creatures that could teleport was longer than my list of infractions. I doubted anyone would even care. We had been living under the fear of the stupid guessing game for three weeks, and to date, not one person had hazarded a guess.
Chicken shits.
Sounding brave, even to myself, I had just gotten the ball rolling. A small joke to alleviate some of the tension. I just needed to wait for the punchline to be delivered.
"Hey, beautiful."
I gasped and spun as David stepped from one of the shadows I had teleported to. "Kami damn it. You scared the shit out of me."
"Not as bad as having your girlfriend teleport in front of you."
"Sorry. Thought I was going to be late," I said with a grin, his girlfriend comment warming the inner fuzzy parts of my heart.
"So. What no good were you up to that you needed to teleport to dinner?"
"Uh…hello. It's called popping, not teleporting. You make me sound like a sci fi nerd when you say that."
"Oh. Popping is so much more eloquent. I stand corrected."
"Well, it has an actual Japanese name, but I won't foxsplain it to you."
"Nope. Popping is cute. So, can you pop other people or just yourself?" We started walking toward the open doors leading to the dining hall.
"That sounded dirty. But no. I can only pop myself and what I'm carrying. If it's not too heavy."
"Could you pop with a small child?"
"Nope. Too heavy. But that seems to change under duress."
"What?"
"It means stress."
"I know what it means. What does that have to do with it?"
"I can pop with people if my life depends on it. Like…say…falling from twenty stories up."
"I'd call that stressful."
He had no idea. "Can't pop through doors or walls either. And I have to be able to see where I'm going. Unless it's someplace I memorized every detail of. But that's not very helpful either if there's walls and doors in the way."
"Probably safer for everybody else if you couldn't. Can't imagine how much trouble you'd get into."
"True story."
My hand touched the tray when I felt, rather than heard, the bell chime throughout the entire school, valley, and possibly the rest of Iceland. I barely managed to resist covering my ears.
"What the fuck?" David didn't manage to resist. I guessed werewolves had better hearing than foxes.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. What the hell was that?"
; "Attention students," Uncle Tatsuo's voice reverberated through our heads, chests, and asses. He must not have wanted anyone to miss the memo. "The very first guess has been submitted. I would like to, at this time, share with you the results of said charming deduction. We do not normally broadcast guesses, but I doubt this one was so far off the mark, it should not provide any clues. The supposition was submitted by a Mr. Ballzitch. He postulates that First Year Student Sabine Lateran is…some sort of genetic experiment gone awry by trying to mate a blue-assed fanged baboon with a mutated herpes virus. I am sorry, Mr. Ballzitch, but your guess is highly incorrect. You will have points deducted from your final grade and they shall be awarded to Ms. Lateran. In a completely unrelated issue, Kaede Tanaka, please report to my office."
"Fuuuuuuuuuck." I was fucked. I'd expected some sort of announcement about the misuse of the Guess Box. I didn't expect Uncle Tatsuo to read the whole damn thing to the entire school. Nor did I expect him to figure out it was me. I even had Hiroki write it so it didn't look like my normal illegible scribbles. The old bastard outed me. Turning slowly, I saw Sabine sitting at one of the tables in the middle of an apoplectic fit, her cronies holding her down to her chair.
"Please tell me that wasn't you," David said slowly.
"Uh. No. No way. I would have been much more creative with her supposed lineage. Uncle Tatsuo probably just wants to catch up."
"Uncle?"
Fuuuuuuuuuuck. "Uh, not really. More like a family friend. Eat. I'll catch up with you later." If I'm still alive.
"Okay. Want me to wait?"
"Don't know how long I'll be, but that's sweet. Thank you," I said and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Wish me luck."
He just chuckled.
Ignoring the laughter, ooohs, aaahs, and humming of funeral marches, I headed to see Uncle Tatsuo.
"It was completely unrelated, people!"
∞ ∞ ∞
"Sit."
I resisted the urge to bark and plopped my butt down on one of the two leather chairs in front of Uncle Tatsuo's very imposing looking desk. I say imposing because the feet and sides were carved into the likeness of dragon scales and feet, and because it was almost as tall as I was. I felt like a kindergartener sitting in front of the principal for finger painting an ass crack on Little Jimmy's face.
A Tail of Woah: A Reverse Harem Academy Tail (The Fox and the Hounds Book 1) Page 9
